Workers age 65 and older account for smaller share of total work-related deaths in 2020

There were 676 work-related fatal injuries for workers age 65 and older in 2020, accounting for 14.2 percent of the total work deaths that occurred during the year. This is the lowest share for the age group since 2016.

The agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting industry had 171 deaths among workers age 65 and older in 2020, down 9.5 percent from 2019. In the transportation and warehousing industry, workplace deaths among workers age 65 and older fell 29.8 percent, from 141 death in 2019 to 99 deaths in 2020. These two industries accounted for nearly 40 percent of the total work-related fatalities for workers age 65 and older in 2020.

Most fatal injuries result in a same-day death, but some are cases where the death occurs later. These are known as latent cases. In some cases, the death occurs in a different year than the work injury and are known as cross-year latent cases. In 2020, there were 73 cases where this occurred for workers age 65 and older, and 69 of these latent cases occurred more than 30 days before the start of 2020.

These data are from the Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities program. To learn more, see “National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2020.” We also have more charts on fatal work injuries.